: The True Heir

After my mom was widowed, she found a toyboy and had a child with him.

He thought he'd successfully secured his position and become the head of the household. He started meddling in everything, big and small, and even stuck his nose in the company's business.

He acted as if the company was already in his grasp.

But what he didn't know was that the company belonged to my dad. My mom was just living a life of luxury off the assets he left behind.

And my dad had given the company to me long ago.

1

"Jeanne, Mom really likes him. Can't you please try to accept him?"

My mother tugged on my sleeve. Even at fifty, the skin on her face was still smooth and delicate.

Pouting like that, she looked more like a child.

I lifted my eyes to look at Ron Rhodes, who was sitting at the other end of the sofa.

His hair was meticulously styled upward with gel.

Ron Rhodes adjusted his posture, looked me up and down, and began to explain, "Your mother and I are truly in love. We're just trying to respect the child's decision now. But if you don't agree, it won't really affect us."

I raised an eyebrow. "I can see that. Going behind my back to have a child this big... you clearly had no intention of respecting me."

"Trying to act first and ask for forgiveness later is a dead end with me. Please see yourselves out."

My mother looked at me, her expression a little tense.

"Jeanne, don't be angry. We just came to discuss it with you first. If you don't agree, we won't get our marriage license yet."

I clapped my hands, stood up, and told the Butler to show them out.

"I don't agree. Please leave."

A muscle in Ron Rhodes's face twitched. Seeing how unyielding I was, he stood up and pulled my mother along with him to leave.

"Your mother raised you all this time, and this is how you repay her?"

Ron Rhodes said this as he walked toward the door, looking back at me.

He kept muttering, trying to take the moral high ground and make me soften up.

"Your mother was being considerate by even telling you. Where I come from, daughters don't get a say in these things."

"We've been here all this time, and we haven't even been offered a proper cup of tea. You have no manners at all."

My mom has barely raised me over the years. I've spent more time with the nanny growing up than I have with her.

I watched as the Butler politely escorted the two of them out.

I brushed off some non-existent dust from my clothes.

"Butler, starting today, have the villa's security guards get a good look at them. If it's those two, they are not to be let in."

I stood by the window, watching my mother's shoulders shake as she cried softly.

Ron Rhodes stood beside her, holding her and comforting her in a low voice.

But the expression on his face, hidden from my mother, was one of impatience.

I stared as the two of them walked further and further away.

A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.

'Of course Ron Rhodes wants to marry my mother.'

'My mom has maintained her life of luxury for so many years, and he's seen it all.'

'The moment my dad died, he started clinging to my mom like a sycophant.'

'But if he thinks that having a child with her will get him everything my family owns...'

'...he's painfully naive.'

'After all, my mother is just living off the inheritance my father left behind.'

'The true person in charge of the company...'

'...is me.'

2

Our family's fortune began with my grandfather's generation.

To put it bluntly, we're rich enough to do nothing all day and spend tens of thousands every second, and the money would still last for decades.

But for a family with such vast wealth, there were strangely few children.

My grandfather was a philanderer who married and divorced several wives one after another.

But tragically, in that generation, my father was the only boy to live past the age of five.

So from a young age, I was steeped in the schemes and power plays of a large family.

For someone like Ron Rhodes, I don't even have to waste my time looking at his file to know what game he's playing.

When it comes to scheming, women can be far more ruthless than men.

My dad grew sick of watching women fight for power. So while he had plenty of affairs, he never let it disrupt his home life. Until the day he died, my mother was the only woman he ever married.

I don't concern myself with my mother, largely because we were never that close.

As I said, I could support her even if she spent money like water. My indifference until today didn't mean I was clueless about the situation.

Ever since I started school, on top of my regular coursework, I had to study various economics courses at night.

I would never go to bed before studying until at least midnight.

The very first contract I handled while learning the ropes at the company was worth millions.

From the very beginning, my dad groomed me to be the company's successor.

My authority is not to be challenged.

Now that Ron Rhodes has had the audacity to strut before me, I have no intention of letting him walk away unscathed.

Expressionless, I drew an X across a contract in front of me.

I glanced back at the family portrait that still hung in the study, even after my father's death.

In the photo, the family of three wore warm smiles—a handsome man, a beautiful woman.

I leaned back, rocking in my custom-made office chair.

Besides...

Who ever told Ron Rhodes my mother was a good person?

3

The Butler quickly brought me the information I requested: my mother's various credit card payment records from the last ten years.

Every single transaction was enough to cover a typical family's expenses for an entire year.

I scanned through the statements.

With the fountain pen in my hand, I circled the items that caught my attention.

Taking the hint, The Butler pulled up the relevant files on his tablet for me to review.

Just as I expected.

In recent years, Ron Rhodes had used my mother's cards to purchase several properties in Argent and Silvera.

On Valentine's Day alone, the transfer amount was nearly a million.

All wired to the same account, of course.

I flipped through the thoroughly investigated file on Ron Rhodes.

It revealed that his parents had died young, and he had been raised by Great-aunt Rhodes.

During his relationship with my mother, he used various excuses to get her to pay for building a house and starting businesses in his hometown.

The Butler leaned in and reminded me in a low voice.

"It seems the Madam is quite fond of Ron Rhodes this time. Should I go and remind her..."

I shook my head, refusing, and patted The Butler's shoulder with a smile.

The Butler immediately stood up straight, a hint of confusion on his face.

I smiled and answered his unspoken question. "Why do you think my mother insisted on bringing him here to see me?"

"She likes Ron Rhodes, true, but she's even more reluctant to give up her current carefree life."

"After all, if she marries Ron Rhodes, the trust fund my father left behind will stop making payments."

"Of course she knows I won't approve. She's letting me be the bad guy."

"This was all part of her plan."